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Supreme Court to hear Mo. drunken driving case

The United States Supreme Court will hear a Missouri case Wednesday that could have a major effect on the nation's laws against drunken driving.

The case, which started two years ago in Cape Girardeau County, centers on whether police have to get a search warrant before drawing a person's blood to check its alcohol content. A man was pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving, failed a field test, refused a Breathalyzer and refused to have his blood drawn. He was taken to a hospital where a blood sample was taken anyway.

The law is pretty clear about police searches: officers can't search without a warrant unless there are special facts or special circumstances.

"When a drug dealer is flushing the drugs down the toilet, the law says the officer can kick the door down to prevent the evidence from being destroyed," said Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd, the head of the Missouri Prosecutors Association.

His group has filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to permit the warrantless blood draws.

"We think drunk driving is a big concern," said Gary Brunk of the Kansas City American Civil Liberties Union. "But law officers also have to follow the law. And in this case, that did not happen."

Brunk and the ACLU have filed a brief urging the justices to uphold the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that threw the blood sample out of the case because officers didn't have a proper warrant.

"It's a big case because it deals with the right against illegal search and seizure," Brunk said.

In drunken driving cases, time is important, prosecutors argue. They said the moment someone stops drinking, the alcohol in the blood begins to dissipate. Prosecutors think time is the requires special factor in drunken driving cases that eliminate the need for a warrant.

"The imminent destruction of that blood-alcohol level mandates the officer take that blood sample without getting a search warrant first," Zahnd said.

He said if an officer needs a traditional warrant, it will mean contacting a judge, often in the middle of the night, to get a warrant signed and to get the driver to a hospital in order to draw blood.

A ruling in the case is likely sometime over the summer.

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